Monday, January 17, 2011

Greater White-fronted Goose

I posted a picture of a domestic Graylag Goose last Wednesday. As I stated in that post, I found them a little confusing as it appears there are wild Graylags in the UK, but that most of what we see hear in the states are the domesticated, barnyard variety.
That brings me to Greater White-fronted Geese. I've seen several this fall and haven't given it much thought, but I realized while looking at a picture someone posted on OBOL just how similar they are to Graylags.
I've been meaning to post this image above for some time now. I took it at RNWR back on Dec 8. At the time I assumed it was a Greater White-fronted and I am sticking to that, but having gone through the exercise of trying to be sure the image posted on OBOL was of domestic Graylags, my confidence was somewhat reduced.
While I've read that Graylags can exhibit some black stripping on their bellies, this prominent feature on this goose reassures me that this is an adult Greater White-fronted Goose. This is the first adult that I have positively identified. All the other Greater White-fronted Geese that I have seen have been of first winter birds as their bellies were lacking the black striping.

No comments:

Post a Comment